Hermann Ehrhardt

Hermann Ehrhardt (29 November 1881-27 September 1971) was a leader of the German Freikorps anti-communist paramilitary groups during the November Revolution of 1918.

Biography
Hermann Ehrhardt was born on 29 November 1881 in Diersburg, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire, and he served in the Imperial German Navy during World War I. He commanded a torpedo boat flotilla during the conflict, and the monarchist Ehrhardt decided to form a brigade of 6,000 marines that would fight against both the democratic Weimar Republic and the communist rebels. The group fought in northwestern Germany, central Germany, Upper Silesia, and Bavaria, and the group took part in the failed 1920 Kapp Putsch. He refused to help Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party during the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, but most of Ehrhardt's men would join the party without him. He managed to escape the Night of the Long Knives and flee to Austria, and he was later invited to return to Nazi Germany. He died in Brunn am Walde, Lower Austria in 1971.